Wednesday, October 17, 2007

E-Z Global Warming Fixes!

When Warmies get on a doom-roll, they're quick to talk about melting polar ice and rising oceans.

Well, despite all their hysteria, it's really not all that bad. In fact, the solution's been right under our noses this whole time!

Cambridge botanist Oliver Rackham, author of a history of Britain’s forests, has said that telling people to plant trees to stop global warming is like telling them to drink more water to keep down rising sea levels.

Seriously now, Rackham's point is one of many excellent ones critical of tree-planting as a global warming offset, as detailed in a recent High Country News story. The other sparkling gem from the piece:

A 2006 Livermore Labs study found benefits to tree planting in the tropics, but showed that forests in temperate zones have a net warming effect. This is because their dark canopies absorb more solar heat than the grasslands and seasonal snow cover they displace, and the effect more than cancels out any benefits from carbon sequestration. In fact, when the Livermore scientists instructed their computer models to remove every tree in the world, the result was a slight cooling.

Nevertheless, the Forest Service has now joined the carbon credits scam movement. Like most of the global warming movement, carbon offsets are not about science; they're about feeling holier than Hummer-drivers.

"Thank you for the "Voice of the Victims films. The students really liked them, and it means so much to them to hear real stories and not watch a cheesy drama like so many other videos."
— High school teacher.